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Help! Tweaking My Lovan Rack for new Big A**ed Transrotor Turntable!

Folks, some input would be mighty appreciated.

I’ve been using a hand-me-down (though very nice!) Micro Seiki dd-40 turntable for a number of years and finally got the upgrade itch (it helps the upgrade itch when your cartridge is going on 30 years old, and sounding like it!).

I went down the rabbit hole and picked up a Transrotor Fat Bob S turntable, with an Acoustic Solid 12" arm and a Benz Micro Ebony cartridge. All with only about 30 hours of use at a great price. Yay!

Though I have considered getting rid of my old Lovan Classic rack for a new custom jobby, I’m pretty much spent out and I think I’ll have to make do for now, working with the Lovan.

The Fat Bob turntable is 55 lbs of solid aluminum and built like Thor’s hammer.

I figure this will finally get me to fill my Lovan stands for a bit more rigidity - probably with rice. The stand is the old 3 legged triangular shaped bass, which means the thin MDF shelves can feel like they sit sort of precariously on top. But the stand itself feels quite solid.

I want to incorporate a wood platform base, as many do, because I really love the look of a nice wood slab.

At first I thought maybe I’d have 3 spikes drilled in to the bottom corners of the wood base to directly couple it to the rest of the Lovan frame, vs resting it on the top mdf shelf. But I’m not sure that’s really necessary. And I’d like to incorporate some isolation as well, I think. So I’m thinking of just laying it on the top shelf, with something in between.

My first thought is to place a Symposium Segue shelf between the top of the Lovan shelf and the wood base.

Other than that...I’m flummoxed as to all the other choices...roller blocks? Symposium Fat Padz? Vibrapods? Herbie’s Tendersoft footers? Voo-Doo Isopods?  What should I put between the wood platform base and my Lovan shelf?

Any comments of suggestions on the direction I’m going?

Thanks!

(BTW, I’m an resolutely NOT a DIY/Handy-man type, so I’m not trying to go to heroic efforts, wishing this to be as painless as possible).
prof
prof OP
3,504 posts
 
When we hooked everything up we only got one channel playing!

Panic!

Cable-swapping time.

Thank goodness I had my experienced turntable buddy there because he ended up checking the wires of the RCAs coming from the Transrotor and, sure enough, one of the channel wires had been pulled apart.

It must have happened one of the several times I'd taken the turntable on and off the stand.  Wow, it's really true as my friend says, turntables HATE being moved.  It didn't take much for this to happen.

My buddy says it's an easy fix, a snip and a bit of soldering which he'll do whenever he can make it back to my place.

So, sigh, all that build up to disappointment.  My longing to hear my turntable unfulfilled.

When I finally get it working, I'll report back to this thread-that-no-one-reads  :-)




bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,111 posts
 
Turntables are not for lightweights, ay prof?! It takes a lot of work to maximize their performance, but if you have a lot of LPs it's well worth it. Then there is room acoustics!
prof OP
3,504 posts
 
bdp24,

Tell me about it!

It's ironic you mention room acoustics:  One reason this has all taken me so long is that I'm juggling two newbie moments: setting up a new expensive turntable AND attempting for the first time to integrate two new subwoofers into my system.

It's been a whole other level of expense and hassle trying to "do subwoofers right" with opinions all over the place on that too.

prof OP
3,504 posts
 
Ugh, another bump in the road:

When I swapped the position of the additional MDF boards to above the Townsend springs (and under the butcher block base) I forgot that this means the entire weight of the turntable and wood base is now sitting only on the top, thin MDF Lovan shelf.  This is precarious as, being a 3-legged stand, the back portion of the thin MDF shelf is only supported in the middle of the shelf.  I can see the lovan shelf bowing to the side already due to lack of corner support.  I can imagine the shelf even snapping at one point and everything tumbling down.

So, in a panic, I put in a temp solution: cut some wood posts to hold up underneath the corners of the lovan MDF shelf.  I did this for the next shelf down too.   So though the corners on which the posts are stuck are themselves "unsupported" spreading the load among several shelfs clearly added great stability.

But for a more permanent and nicer looking solution I plan to add a sheet of steel under the top Lovan shelf to support the weight of the turntable.  Not sure what thickness yet.

Since the other lovan shelves are so flimsy, I think I'll add a layer of steel sheet to those as well (and damp them).

My QUESTION:

While I'm out buying sheets of steel, I thought maybe I'd thrown a sheet - maybe 1/4" or 1/2" - into the mix of the base supporting my turntable.
So, maybe in between the maple block and the thick MDF boards that are held up by the townshend pods.

Any reason not to do this?  If figure the more solidity beneath the turntable the better. 
prof OP
3,504 posts
 
bump for anyone to answer my last paragraph.
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